Unimak Island

Mount Shishaldin is simmering down after a Friday eruption sent an ash cloud across the eastern Aleutians, prompting the Alaska Volcano Observatory to raise the aviation color code to red.

Two ash eruptions from Shishaldin Volcano disrupted air travel to the Aleutians Tuesday.

Shishaldin volcano, which has been erupting for days, sent an ash cloud 40,000 feet into the air above Unimak Island early Friday morning.

Four people were on board F/V Pacific Sounder when she got stuck on the western shore of Unimak Island — between Unalaska and the Alaska Peninsula — on the morning of June 17. The Pacific Sounder hailed a MAYDAY call at 10:43 Friday morning but the crew waited three hours before they were rescued. Eventually, the Good Samaritan boat, the Polar Sea, arrived and found the crew unharmed.

Fishermen in the Bering Sea reported spotting at least two North Pacific right whales about 80 miles from Unalaska earlier this month. Scientists say it's likely the first visual evidence of the highly endangered whales feeding in the Bering Sea in winter, and they’re urging fishing boats in the area to exercise caution.

From mid-June to mid-October, Dan Binde of Minnesota hiked from Yakutat, in the northern reaches of Alaska's Inside Passage, across the Alaska Peninsula,…